On an unactivated PC, you'll get regular notifications that you need to enter a valid product key. This message appeared in the upper left corner of the screen just now when I tried to visit PC Settings on an unactivated Windows 8 test PC. It didn't appear to block any functionality, nor did the notifications degrade any features. It appears to be strictly a speed bump. (I'll be looking into the exact implementation of activation and product key checking in the next few weeks.) Ed Bott.
Eu também achei isso mas foi para a versão Enterprise, a Microsoft não documentou nenhum processo de ativação de nenhuma versão até o momento, portanto, seus artigos como esse são as únicas informações que posso encontrar a partir desta data de lançamento.
Microsoft declined to comment when asked to explain the reasoning behind the activation changes to Windows 8. "We have no information to share," a spokeswoman said in an email Monday. Source